The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has decided to develop a module to interlink the databases of power supplying or distributing authorities with the TIN database in a bid to bring the power consumers under tax-net.
Once the module is developed, authenticity of the furnished TIN (taxpayers identification number) of the power consumers can be verified at the time of paying electricity bills, according to an order of the NBR.
With the proposed module, the taxmen will also be able to find out new taxpayers and owners of house properties and flats.
The NBR Chairman Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan recently approved a project in this regard.
First Secretary (tax inspection and coordination) of the NBR Khandaker Khurshid Kamal has been made the project director and head of a ten-member committee to implement the project.
The NBR Member (tax information management and services) Kanon Kumar Roy will look after the project.
It will be a taxpayers' identification module and will be interlinked with the power supplying authorities, such as - Dhaka Electric Supply Company, Dhaka Power Distribution Company, Rural Electrification Board, West Zone Power Distribution Company, and North West Power Distribution Company.
In the budget for current fiscal year (FY), 2019-20, a new provision has been incorporated for furnishing TIN on mandatory basis at the time of paying electricity bills by consumers in the urban areas. Power consumers will give a copy of their TIN certificates to the power authorities concerned while payment of their electricity bills.
It has been made mandatory for both getting and maintaining electricity connections by house owners and businesspeople, in areas under city corporations, cantonment boards, and municipalities in district headquarters.
Earlier, TIN was mandatory for obtaining commercial power connection only.
In an office order, the NBR said there will be no allocation in the development budget for the module project. Fund, allocated to revenue sector for maintenance of e-TIN system and ICT of the NBR, will be used for bearing cost of the planned module.
Scopes of the project will be compilation of power consumers' e-TIN related data in the databases of the power supplying or distributing authorities as well as developing a TIN verification module.
In case of pre-paid power connection consumers, the committee will develop a TIN verification module for bill payment with digital cards of the consumers.
A separate module will be developed for the NBR's e-TIN system to keep data of the power sector consumers.
The module will be developed in such a manner, so that the taxmen can collect data of both existing and new power consumers, including their National Identification Number (NID), from the databases of the power distribution authorities.
Both the systems of the power sector authorities concerned and the NBR will be integrated to help the taxmen collect information of the power consumers.
Through operating the business intelligence software, the taxmen will be able to detect new taxpayers and determine the actual number of house properties and flat owners from the existing taxpayers, mentioned the NBR order.
The committee will prepare an action-plan for the project and discuss pros and cons of the module with the power authorities.
It will inform the vendor of e-TIN system, Synesis IT Ltd, about the new module, and also collect its budget requirement for development of the module.
The committee will hold opinion-exchanging meetings with the Power Division, power supplying authorities, banks and other stakeholders concerned.
A senior income tax official said implementation of the measure will need some time, as various exercises are needed to make it successful.
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